Notices by Richard Stallman (rms@mastodon.xyz)

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260709160641.htm

The notion of "intelligent design" of humans and other living species is false -- our structure came about by step-by-step improvement with no way to eliminate kludges.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/uk/nigel-farage-special-election-bin-face-intl

Candidate Nigel Barage, of the right-wing extremist Deform UK Party, who would be comic if he were not so dangerous, has discovered that his main opponent will a candidate who is intentionally comic: Count Binface.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/16/cannabis-inot-effective-treatment-for-common-mental-health-conditions-review

A study has found that marijuana is not an effective treatment for widespread mental-related medical problems such as anxiety and anorexia. Likewise for *psychotic disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder or opioid use disorder.*

[2/2] doors, he shot at them. This sort of thing happens every day. (I heard from Israeli leftists decades ago that the border police were generally cruel to Palestinians, more so than soldiers.) What is unusual is that that policeman is being investigated for these acts. But past patterns suggest this will not lead to significant disciplinary action. Killing injured Palestinians by keeping them apart from ambulances is also frequent practice.

[1/2] https://stallman.org/glossary.html#police
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/07/israeli-officer-stun-grenade-car-west-bank
https://stallman.org/archives/2011-may-aug.html#21%20May%202011%20(Nabi%20Saleh%20Border%20Police)
https://stallman.org/archives/2024-sep-dec.html#13_November_2024_(Living_in_Beit_Iksa_is_like_prison)

An Israeli border police officer threw a flashbang into a car then shut its door from the outside. When the passengers (Palestinians) ran out the other side

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/10/extreme-heat-study-global-warming-physical-activity

*Extreme heat now affects one in three people globally, study finds. Rising temperatures making it hard even for young, healthy people to safely do normal physical tasks in many regions.*

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/12/trump-election-subversion

*How to plan for an [free] election [even though] leaders are trying to subvert [it].*

[2/2] nowadays the tyrant Erdoğan is undermining both of those allegiances.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/09/lgbtq-cruise-ship-refused-entry-egypt-turkey
https://stallman.org/archives/2020-mar-jun.html#13_May_2020_(Cancelling_defeats)
https://stallman.org/archives/2007-may-aug.html#05%20May%202007%20(Protests%20in%20Turkey)

Two Muslim governments (Turkey and Egypt) have seized on a self-designated "gay cruise" as an opportunity to demonstrate their religious bigotry, by refusing the ship entry. Turkey is ostensibly a secular democracy, but

https://stallman.org/glossary.html#wrecker
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/bills-trump-clean-energy-coal

*[The wrecker] spends billions to kill clean energy and keep coal alive.* I don't think increasing Americans' electric bills is his goal, nor increasing sickness from air pollution. Those are side effects that do not matter to him. The goal that seems plausible to me is paying billionaires to support his power.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/09/maine-progressives-graham-platner-replacement

Bernie Sanders has endorsed Troy Jackson as a senate candidate to replace Platner. The article links to more information about Jackson.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/10/trump-climate-report-matthew-wielicki

The saboteur in chief wants to put a global heating denialist in charge of official US government reports on the advance of global heating.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260709160641.htm

Among the reasons for rejecting the idea of "intelligent design" of the human body are the shockingly stupid instances of bad design in it. Occasionally someone has hands with six fingers. Could the human body have been designed by an LLM?

[2/2] to pick the least bad way of increasing taxes only on people who are more-or-less rich, and push it through.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/07/change-unsustainable-direction-uk-debt-obr-health-pensions

If the UK borrows enough to carry out needed spending, it will fall into a debt-inflation spiral, according to a government economic monitor. This is one of the many bad aspects of the decision to borrow needed funds rather than get them by taxing the rich. The world will become more and more unjust unless we increase the share of production that goes to the non-rich. We need

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/12/green-mp-hannah-spencer-aims-to-pass-law-on-maximum-workplace-temperatures
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating

A bill in the UK proposes to set a maximum temperature for workplaces, as a safety standard. This is needed, in the age of global heating disaster, to protect the lives of workers.

[2/2] bite out of the problem, not a little nibble. Use of a recommendation engine should not be enabled by default. I think that a platform should not be allowed to use or suggest any particular recommedation engine.

[1/2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/10/eu-accuses-meta-failing-tackle-mental-health-risks-addictive-design

* EU regulators have accused Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, of failing to tackle the risks of its "addictive design" on the physical and mental health of users.* This is a very important problem, and one of the reasons to refuse to use those systems. But if the EU is serious about protecting users from them, it should take firm action -- take a big

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/07/record-wildfires-europe-failure-to-adapt-mounting-cost-climate-crisis
https://stallman.org/glossary.html#global%20heating

*Record wildfires in Europe show failure to [curb global heating] carries a mounting cost.*

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jul/12/uk-cap-political-donations-stop-rich-buying-influence

*UK must cap political donations to stop the rich buying influence.* The US must do this too, but the question of how it can be done is different in each country because of the difference in constitutions./p>